In America, an online alleged US-legal poker tournament site that launched less than two months ago has shut following numerous reports that bounced cheques were being sent to winners.

Zosoz.com premiered at the end of October and was reportedly owned by a private firm based in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. It charged $19.99 for a subscription and claimed players had the potential to win part of its $3.5 million in annual sweepstakes prizes.

“What makes Zosoz.com different from other online poker clubs is that we give away the most online poker tournament sweepstakes prizes annually; daily $1,000 tournaments, weekly $10,000 tournaments, monthly $100,000 tournaments and a yearly one million dollar tournament,” Tim Belisle from Zosoz.com was quoted at the time.

However, a statement on Zosoz.com appeared last week announcing that the site had ceased operations due to ‘circumstances beyond our control’.

“All subscription membership fees have been refunded in full,” read a statement on the site.

“No cash-out required, all sweepstakes winners will be paid via cashier's check. Only winners of $600 or more must be validated to receive full payment. All documents supplied to us are stored on our secured servers. This information will be used to send 1099 forms to both the IRS and to you. This will occur in January of 2009. Once we have processed your 1099 form, we will then delete the files from our system. It will take up to six weeks to process winnings.

“We would like to thank you for your participation in Zosoz.com over the past two months and apologise for any inconvenience this causes you.”